Her Rodeo Man

by Cathy McDavid

  “I’ll take a look at feeding time.” Mercer patted his stomach as if to settle his meal.

  Tatum felt Ryder’s gaze on her and struggled to ignore him. It was impossible. The green-gray color of his eyes was unlike any she’d seen, made more prominent by his strong, masculine features and short cropped brown hair.

  To her chagrin, her heart gave a little flutter in return. Good grief. Surely she couldn’t be attracted to him. He wasn’t her type. More than that, he could well be after her job.

  Hoping to hide her reaction, she said, “Thank you, Mercer. From me and my kids. You know how they love Cupcake.”

  “How old are they?” Ryder’s mouth curved at the corners into a devastatingly charming smile.

  Tatum responded by blushing. And all because Cassidy had made Tatum acutely aware of Ryder by mentioning that stupid kiss. When they finished with lunch she was going to give her best friend a well-deserved piece of her mind.

  “My daughter’s seven, and the boys are four and two.”

  “Are they in school with Benjie?”

  “My daughter is, though not in the same grade. The boys attend day care while I work.”

  It had been difficult finding reliable and reasonably priced child care in such a small town. The Becketts paid Tatum a fair, even generous, wage. Still, a large chunk of her income went to cover the costs of day care. And rent and food. Making ends meet was a delicate balance. Luckily, her ex paid his child support on time and carried the children as dependents on his health insurance.

  If for any reason, that ceased, Tatum would be back to where she was earlier this year. Unable to provide her children with the most basic necessities and at risk of losing them.

  The Becketts hadn’t just given her a job when Tatum was laid off, they’d saved her family. Her loyalty to them was deep and abiding.

  “Tatum’s a teacher,” Liberty said.

  “Was,” Tatum corrected.

  “You teach art classes.”

  “Really?” Ryder looked at her with interest.

  “Just part-time. Lenny Faust at the Ship-With-Ease Store lets me use the empty space next door. I used to teach third and fourth grade at the elementary school. For seven years.” Why had she felt pressured to qualify herself? As if teaching art wasn’t good enough.

  “Until last December,” Cassidy added with disgust. “That’s when the school board gave her the boot. Bad decision.”

  “Now, now,” Sunny admonished. “We’ve been over this before. There are other teachers who’ve been with the school longer.”

  “Budget cuts. Right. You were outvoted, and your hands are tied.”

  “We’ll hire Tatum back as soon as we can.” Sunny covered the leftover corn bread with a linen napkin. “The board convenes in a few weeks to approve the new budget.”

  Tatum didn’t want to get her hopes up, but she couldn’t help herself. She loved teaching. Other than her own children, nothing gave her greater satisfaction or enjoyment, and she missed it terribly.

  To her vast relief, talk turned to the upcoming Wild West Days Rodeo and the arena’s record number of entries.

  “Ryder has some notion about...what did you call it?”

  “Reciprocal advertising,” Ryder said, then went on to explain the concept.

  Tatum thought the idea innovative, though her experience with marketing was limited to her job at the arena and what Sunny had taught her.

  Cassidy shrugged. “We’ve always done well enough without having to swap advertising with other rodeo arenas.”

  “We could do better,” Ryder said.

  “What if it backfires and we lose business?”

  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Look at what Dad’s done with the bulls he purchased. He told me revenue’s increased over fifteen percent in two months.”

  “Because of the weekly bull-riding jackpots and team penning.”

  “It’s just an idea, Cassidy. I’m not married to it.”

  Ryder’s response was casual, as if he couldn’t care less. A stillness of his hand and tension in his jaw gave Tatum the impression he cared very much and didn’t like his methods being questioned.

  The Beckett family dynamics were certainly interesting and, at times, bewildering and frustrating. Did none of them realize this was the first time in who knew how many years they were all together? Couldn’t they play nice this once?

  Excusing herself, Tatum said, “Duty calls. My voice-mail box has probably reached its limit and is ready to self-destruct.”

  “And I have a meeting with a client.” Deacon pushed back from the table. “Thank you for lunch, Sunny.”

  “I’ll walk you to your truck.” Before joining Deacon, Liberty bent and gave Ryder a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m really glad you’re home. Let’s have dinner soon.”

  “How about tomorrow night? I need someone to show me around town. A lot’s changed.”

  “Great! Deacon and I will pick you up at seven.”

  A smile spread across Ryder’s face, and Tatum was momentarily disarmed by his handsomeness. It was amazing, really, that, at thirty-six, he remained a bachelor. Women no doubt pursued him in droves.

  One by one, everyone left the kitchen. Cassidy had to supervise preparations for the roping practice later that afternoon. Once Liberty saw Deacon off, she’d recruit a couple of the wranglers to help her unload the lumber she’d bought. Mercer was taking Ryder to his place to settle in.

  Sunny started clearing the table.

  Though she’d been the one to suggest leaving, Tatum offered, “I can stay and help, if you want.”

  “Thanks. Then I’ll go with you to the office. There’s a pile of paperwork calling my name.”

  Ryder paused on his way to the door, stopping Tatum as she carted an armload of dishes to the sink. “See you in the morning?”

  “Right.”

  He didn’t move. “Look, I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Not remembering. The kiss.” Those compelling eyes roved her face, then lingered on her mouth. “That wouldn’t happen now, I guarantee it.”

  The next instant, he was gone. Thank goodness! One second longer, and he’d have heard her sharp intake of breath.

  Tatum tried to tell herself that Ryder was in marketing. Essentially a salesman. Winning people over, even flirting a little, was part of the job and second nature to him. Yet, a thrill wound slowly through her, confirming just how susceptible she was to him. She simultaneously dreaded the coming morning and couldn’t wait for it.

  * * *

  CASSIDY SAT AT the front desk when Ryder entered the ranch office. “Hi. Tatum’s not here yet.”

  Her tone wasn’t exactly welcoming, but neither was it distant. Did she consider him an interloper rather than an asset to the business? She still treated his father that way at times.

  “I came early to see you.”

  It had been easy enough to learn from his father that Cassidy made a habit of visiting the office ahead of Tatum, who had to drop off her sons at day care. She liked to review the day’s schedule and answer emails. According to their father, it was the only break she’d have all day.

  “I didn’t come empty-handed.” He produced two paper cups of steaming coffee. Sitting in the visitor chair across from her, he passed her the cup with caramel latte scrawled in black marker on the side.

  After a pause, she accepted it. “Dad tell you this is my favorite?”

  “I’ve been picking his brain.”

  “You actually stood in line twenty minutes for coffee?” Cassidy sipped tentatively through a hole in the plastic lid.

  “I got up early and beat the morning rush. Who’d’ve guessed? Reckless has a gourmet coffee shop.”

  She eyed him from over the brim of h
er cup. “Things change.”

  He eyed her back. “They do.”

  “Is this a peace offering or a bribe?”

  “I don’t want to fight, Cassidy.”

  She set down the coffee. “We’re not fighting.”

  “You embarrassed Tatum yesterday just to get at me.”

  “I do owe her an apology.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re sorry I came home.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be glad? Really. Mom’s ready to burst with happiness. And Liberty’s so excited, she’s downright annoying. The whole family’s reunited at last, yadda, yadda, yadda.”

  “What about you?”

  “Depends.”

  “On?”

  “Mom, for one. You broke her heart when you left. I don’t want you to do it again.”

  “The only promise I made Dad and Liberty when I agreed to come here was that I’d try.”

  “An honest effort is all I ask.”

  Did she think he’d give anything less? “Mom and I have a lot of bridges to mend. It won’t be easy.”

  “It’s going to be as easy or difficult as you make it.”

  Interesting comment for someone who was starting out by making things difficult. But, his sister was probably right. “Let’s stick to the reason I waited twenty minutes in line for overpriced coffee.”

  “I thought you said you beat the rush.”

  “A slight exaggeration.”

  Cassidy laughed. It wasn’t much of a laugh. More like a dry chuckle. Still, it beat the heck out of their mother’s forced cheerfulness at lunch the day before.

  “Why are you really mad at me?” he asked.

  “Tatum. She needs this job, Ryder. And you’re a threat to it.”

  “Not as much as you think.”

  “Dad has other ideas.”

  Ryder considered leveling with Cassidy about this being a temporary stay until he landed another position. Gut instinct made him hesitate. “I’m not a threat to Tatum.”

  “When she lost her job at the school, she also lost custody of her kids.”

  “Wow! You’re kidding.”

  “Temporarily lost custody. But she fell apart.”

  “What happened?”

  “Tatum’s good with money. But the divorce left her without any kind of nest egg. And you know what teachers make, especially in Reckless. Squat. She had no savings to fall back on when the school board laid her off last December. The extra money she makes off of her art classes is barely enough to put groceries on the table.”

  “Couldn’t she find another teaching job outside of Reckless?”

  “That takes time. She also had her house to consider. She didn’t want to move if she could help it.”

  If anyone understood the difficulty of finding a good job and dwindling resources, it was Ryder. The past two months of searching had produced no results other than draining his bank account. Though what hindered his job search had less to do with lack of available employment and more to do with the bad reputation he’d created for himself at Madison-Monroe Concepts.

  His stomach involuntarily tightened. He’d live down his mistake. Eventually. Come hell or high water.

  “We gave her a job as office manager,” Cassidy continued, “and that took a lot of arm-twisting. Tatum is proud and refused what she called a pity job.”

  “Dad says she’s pretty good at what she does.”

  “She is. Which is why it’s not a pity job. But then the bank foreclosed on her house anyway when she couldn’t keep up with the payments. She and the kids moved in with us. Rent free. That was charity, and she struggled to accept it.”

  “Seven people. Four bedrooms. It must have been crowded.”

  “We didn’t care. But her ex-mother-in-law got wind of the situation and convinced her son to hire an attorney, claiming Tatum couldn’t provide adequately for the kids.”

  “He sued for custody?” Ryder was appalled. “Why didn’t he help her make her mortgage payments? They’re his children, too.”

  “It didn’t go that far. Luckily. Tatum compromised. She turned over care of the kids to her mother-in-law. Just until she saved enough money working for us to rent an apartment. It was a rough period for her. The kids, too. They missed Tatum and hated living with their grandmother.”

  “Did she mistreat them?”

  “No, no. She’s not the warm, cookie-baking kind of grandmother, but that wasn’t the problem. She lives in Glendale. A four-hour round trip. Tatum only saw the kids once a week at most. The day she signed the lease on her apartment, she broke down and cried in front of the rental agent.”

  “She’s lucky to have you and Mom.”

  “We’re lucky to have her. She works hard, even if an office manager isn’t her first choice of a job.”

  “I do remember her drawing a lot. Always walking around with a sketchbook.”

  Cassidy studied him critically. “So, you didn’t forget her entirely.”

  “No.” But he hadn’t thought of her in years. A stark contrast to the past twenty-four hours. She’d been on his mind constantly. “You and she barrel raced.”

  “We did. She met her ex on the circuit, and for a few years, they traveled from rodeo to rodeo, living in an RV. That wore thin on Tatum. She quit in order to obtain her teaching degree.”

  “Her husband continued to compete?”

  “Nothing would stop him. Tatum did her best to make the marriage work. Full-time job, full-time mom, part-time husband. When she got pregnant for the third time, he left for good, saying something like, ‘baby, I just can’t be tied down.’ She took it hard. I say the jerk didn’t deserve her, and she was better off without him.”

  Ryder tended to agree.

  “I’m not gossiping, so don’t think that.” Cassidy sipped again at her coffee. “I only wanted you to know what Tatum’s been through and why this job is important to her.” Her voice dropped. “Don’t mess it up for her.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  Cassidy looked skeptical.

  “My plan is to create and implement a sound marketing strategy for the arena.” One Tatum or his mother could manage after he was gone.

  Funny. He hadn’t realized until this moment how similar his and Tatum’s situations were. Both of them working interim jobs while hoping for a better one. Both of them resisting to take what they considered charity.

  Okay, maybe that wasn’t so funny.

  “What exactly is going on with Mom and Dad?” Ryder didn’t want to talk about Tatum anymore. “Do you think they’ll get back together?”

  “God, I hope not.” Cassidy turned away from him to stare out the window.

  It wasn’t eight in the morning, yet the ranch was alive with activity. Hands cleaning stalls. Customers exercising their horses. The carpenters Liberty had hired to construct the horse jumps were making a ruckus behind the barn, banging hammers and running the chain saw. Mercer conferred with a rep from the grain dealer.

  “For once I agree with you.”

  Her head swung back around. “Why do I think there’s a catch?”

  “No catch. Mom threw him out. Abandoned him in his hour of need. Lied to him about being Liberty’s father. He’d be a fool to get involved again.”

  “She had every right to throw him out,” Cassidy argued hotly. “He’s an alcoholic.”

  Their parents had purchased the Easy Money before Ryder was born and had taken it from a run-down, dirt-poor arena to the best facility in the southern part of the state. That all changed when Ryder’s grandfather died suddenly from a heart attack, and his father began drowning his grief with whiskey. Daily.

  In less than a year, the arena went from prospering to the verge of bankruptcy, and Ryder’s mother kicked
him to the curb. What Ryder knew and his sisters didn’t until recently was that their father retained his half ownership of the arena. Their mother had also never paid their father his share of the profits per their settlement agreement. The sum was staggering.

  “Reformed alcoholic,” Ryder said. “He hasn’t touched a drink in over twenty years.” He’d stopped shortly after Ryder moved in with him.

  “Once an alcoholic, always—”

  “Let it go, Cassidy.”

  “He didn’t almost kill you!”

  “It was a fender bender. You were fine.”

  She drew back, her expression one of shock. “What if he’d been going faster?”

  One night, their father had picked up Cassidy en route home from the bar. While pulling on to the property, he’d lost control of the truck and rammed into the well house. He’d been sorry. Their mother outraged.

  “Mom was justified. He wasn’t only a lousy husband, he was a danger to our well-being.”

  “He’s paid for his sins, Cassidy. We all have. Mom divorced him and told everyone some cowboy passing through was Liberty’s father. Our little sister deserved to know the truth. Mom had no right denying either her or Dad.”

  “She had her reasons. Good ones.”

  “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

  “In this case, they do.”

  “She didn’t just reject him.” Ryder’s anger rose, its grip like a vise around his chest. “She tore our family apart. Took our father away from us. That wasn’t fair.”

  “She’s not the only one to tear our family apart.” Tears welled in Cassidy’s eyes.

  “What are you saying?”

  “You left. And you hardly ever visited. You’re only here now because you quit your job. You don’t love us or want us. We’re just your last resort.”

  Ryder sat in stunned silence. She thought he’d rejected them?

  Before he could say more, Tatum entered the office. One glance at them, and she pulled up short. “Sorry. Am I interrupting?”

  Chapter Three

  Both Ryder and Cassidy insisted that Tatum hadn’t inadvertently walked in on a private and sensitive conversation. She didn’t believe them. Ryder had stood so fast, he almost upended the visitor chair. Cassidy averted her gaze but not before Tatum spied the look of utter distress on her friend’s face.